Netbooks have been heralded as the foot in the door for Linux. With the launch of the earliest Eee PC models, Asus made a bold move by only offering them with Linux pre-installed; Microsoft soon responded by working with Asus to bring Windows XP to the next generation Eee PCs. Since then, Windows XP gained market share in the netbook segment rapidly, casting doubts over whether or not netbooks would really turn out to be that foot in the door. HP has today announced that its new HP Mini 1000 netbook will not be available with Linux pre-installed in Europe.

I agree, why worry, just buy the netbook and put Linux on it if you please. You can get the most of the components if not all through repositories and install them. It's just Ubuntu.

Yes, I run Kubuntu Intrepid on my HP 2133 and it works great. But why should I have to pay for Microsoft software that I don't want. I never used SuSE 10 that the netbook came with because it didn't boot, and stalled with 'grub error 17'. I don't think that sort of thing is going to attract new Linux converts.

But still, what's this about HP making poor netbooks? I don't know of anyone else that makes anything as nice as the 2133/2140 series. Everything else looks like a toy.

I agree, I walked up and down Tottenham Court Road in London looking at as many netbooks as I could find and couldn't see anything that came even close. Only the MacBook Air for more than 4 times the cost (I paid 300 UKP/Euros for my 2133) was as well finished, and that is perhaps too big to be a netbook although it doesn't weigh much more than my HP.